Children as Evidence

Children as evidence: assessing understanding in mathematics by talking to children

Materials to support in-school and cross-school moderation and standardisation - a downloadable resource for Y1 to Y6

Assessing mathematics should involve assessing mathematical thinking, related to key mathematical ideas. Talking to children is the best way to do this, as it allows teachers to probe children’s understanding, reasoning and decision making. These materials provide questions related to key mathematical ideas for each year group along with a clear indication of how to interpret responses in relation to age-related expectations. They have been produced to support schools with moderation and standardisation and could be used by:

senior leaders and subject leaders at the end of the year to ensure consistency and rigour in teacher assessment

clusters of schools as they work together to build a picture of the progress and attainment of learners in mathematics

teachers at the end of a significant teaching period to support their ongoing building of a picture, feeding into both their planning and their understanding of how well the children are learning.